Police fire tear gas at anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters bringing down police barricades protecting the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka on Saturday.
Thousands protested across the Island to mark 50 days since the start of nationwide protests demanding the president's resignation.
Earlier on Saturday, thousands of people walked from various of parts of the capital Colombo to the permanent protest site opposite the president’s office.
Sri Lanka, an island nation of 22 million people, is reeling under its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with a severe shortage of foreign exchange severely curtailing imports, including essentials such as fuel and medicines.
The turmoil has come from the confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the country's lucrative tourism industry and foreign workers' remittances, ill-timed tax cuts by Rajapaksa draining government coffers and rising oil prices.
Demonstrations have roiled Sri Lanka since late March, with protesters accusing the president and his powerful family of mishandling the economy.
